Barrett Advising is excited to announce two new staff members will be joining our team as Academic Success Advisors at the Tempe campus. 

Mackenzie (Tashi) Flaig is coming from Colombia where she wrapped up a position as a Fulbright Senior English Teaching Assistant, mentoring first year ETAs and working with local students in the country. Tashi also has previous experience working at Baylor University as an Administrative Associate in several units supporting faculty, staff, and students. She has a lot of student service experience, including registration, transfer credit evaluation, hiring student workers, website and social media updates, and tuition and stipend authorization. She is a graduate of Baylor with a Bachelor’s degree in Language and Linguistics and a Minor in Arabic (she is trilingual!). 

Parker McNair is coming from Oregon after working with College Possible as an AmeriCorps College Access Coach, helping younger students find a path to college with support, resources, and group advising sessions focused on college readiness topics. Parker has worked with school counselors and teachers to align support strategies, advised students on academic planning, and organized seminars on graduate admissions and professional development. He is a graduate of the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon with a degree in Psychology and an Honors Thesis on the effects of feedback and goal setting on attention and performance. 

Both will be starting in our office on July 29, and will be training leading up to the start of classes on August 22. Be on the lookout for meetings with them in early August, as well as the chance to meet them at the upcoming Happy Hour and Back to Barrett Luncheon. 

The ASU Spark Method™ is a tool that allows teams to quickly move from discussing an opportunity or challenge to implementing an action plan built on the team’s expertise and input. The Method empowers individuals at any level within an organization to approach the challenges they face with the tools needed to implement effective change. ASU Spark accelerates decision making, ignites motivation, lifts morale, and builds a culture of autonomy where each individual trusts and values the collective understanding that “Innovation starts with me™.” In its simplest form, Spark is an easy-to-implement, effective method for guiding individuals and teams through a collaborative, action-oriented, solution-generating process. Departments, units, or teams work through a Spark session under the guidance of a trained Spark Facilitator.

Registration and more information can be found at: https://asu.csod.com/ui/lms-learning-details/app/event/fd3d38d8-6d18-4c4f-bf01-a8bf226a1274

The Arizona State University Commission on the Status of Women is pleased to host the 17th annual ASU Professional Development Conference. The 2024 will be hosted on Wednesday, Oct. 23 and Thursday, Oct. 24. 

The 2024 conference schedule features a wide variety of sessions under the U.S. Surgeon General’s five essentials for Workplace Mental Health and Wellbeing, including:

• Protection from Harm: Safety and Security.
• Community and Connection: Social Support and Belonging.
• Mattering at Work: Dignity and Impact
• Opportunity for Growth: Learning and Accomplishments
• Work-Life Harmony: Autonomy and Flexibility

More information and registration can be found at https://csw.asu.edu/programs/professional-development/information 

The fireworks are over or are they? It is time to ignite your career. Mentoring can do that. Register here for the Mentoring OHSM.

We are pleased to introduce Allison (Allie) Dunn as the new Front Desk Administrator here at Barrett. Allie’s background includes previous work in higher education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington in the Film Studies Department. She is excited to return to the world of higher education. She enjoys bargain hunting at thrift stores and antique malls and is passionate about fitness. Allie will be starting on Monday, July 8th. Please take a moment to stop by and say hello or send her a welcome email.

The Barrett recruiting team of Enrollment Services is excited to welcome our newest recruiter, Sadaf Asadifar. Sadaf is originally from Iran. Upon living in Turkey for a little over a year, she moved to Arizona in 2012. She recently graduated from Barrett, The Honors College with bachelor’s degrees in Neuroscience, Psychology, and Global Health and is passionate about continuing to help build the future community of ASU and Barrett. Outside of work, she enjoys her time by crocheting, reading, writing, running, and traveling. 

What is your current role at Barrett, and what are your primary responsibilities?

I am a program manager for Barrett Downtown Recruitment and Admissions Department. 
As a Barrett recruiter, I and another recruiter, Olympia cover Phoenix Union High School District, Xavier, and Brophy. We visit schools, join college fairs and connect with high school counselors to promote Barrett. Some of my primary responsibilities as a Program Manager at Barrett Downtown are creating strategic plans for recruitment activities and executing them.  

What do you enjoy most about your job and working for Barrett?

I love working at Barrett Downtown community. As a recruiter, I primarily work with prospective/incoming students but because of the smaller community, I stay connected with students after their enrollment and see their growth. I learn so much from students. They educate me what is happening in the nursing, medical, criminology field etc. Because we work with students from all the majors, I get to learn so many different things! Also, I am grateful for my team! For the recruitment event, for example, other departments such as advising or even faculty are always willing to help me! We truly care about students’ experience and I learn so much from them as well! 

What are some of your hobbies or interests outside of work?

I like traveling and trying out new restaurants. I also love the outside activities (when the weather is nice). My family and I often pack up some food and do picnic in the park. 
On third Friday of the month, Children’s museum is open late for membership holders.  We often take advantage of this opportunity and go to the restaurant at Downtown and enjoy the dinner!

What's a fun fact or hidden talent about you that most people at work might not know?

I am good at cooking (I believe). I often cook authentic Japanese food at home. I am also good at crafting. Once, my son asked me to make him Buzz lightyear’s wings. I put some materials that we already had at home together and made him the costume! 

Can you share a memorable travel experience or a dream destination you hope to visit someday?

My husband and I did 12 days road trip about 10 years ago. We rented a convertible car and went to Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and stopped by San Francisco and LA before coming back to Phoenix! While we are visiting national parks, we did camp! 
I have never been to Europe except for transit at the airport and I would love to stay there for a couple of weeks and visit various countries and see some historical buildings/architecture there. 

Level-Up Labs Summer Series

Danielle B. Steele and Dena Messer-Herrera will be co-facilitating the Level-Up Labs summer series starting in June! This fantastic professional development opportunity is open to all ASU employees. For more details, please check out the flyer. If you're interested in joining, complete the interest form by June 4. Additionally, for a brief orientation of the program, join on Tuesday, June 11, from 12:30 pm to 1:00 pm to learn more about this Level-Up Labs series.

Let's kick off the summer with a fresh start and take our careers to the next level!

Curious how productivity could be better measured in the knowledge economy? Look no further than OECOP's panel on productivity next month!
In this engaging panel, panelists will be discussing the philosophy of 'slow productivity' and how to influence organizational norms around productivity. Please register here

If you want to get started reading up on the topic, you can review these sources:
:https://davidepstein.substack.com/p/the-power-of-slow-productivityhttps://calnewport.com/my-new-book-slow-productivity/

The Barrett Marketing team is excited to announce the addition of Brennon Prichard as our new Digital Marketing and Email Management Intern. 

Brennon started with Barrett as a student worker in the marketing office in fall 2021 as our email marketing student worker. He helped facilitate the colleges move in sending the Honors Digest from outlook to Salesforce Marketing Cloud. During his three years he has helped grow and expand our email communication’s and, in the process, improved the quality and professionalism of our emails and helped to implement improved standards and practices for our email content, thus helping us align our messaging better and helping to follow the ASU email standards. 

Brennon will maintain our email communications and will continue to work with the Development, Alumni, Advising, and Students Services teams for all their official email communications as well as continue to sent the Honors Digest and the individual campus newsletters, along with the Internship Roundup and the Online Digest. He will also assist with marketing strategy and data analysis helping Barrett to continue to improve our marketing and communications. 

Brennon graduated this spring with a bachelor’s degree in digital integrated marketing communications and will continue his education. Pursuing a master’s degree in digital audience strategy. He is looking forward to engaging with the Barrett staff and working together on opportunities for improving the Barrett student experience.